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Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

The more I look at this trade, the picks look like a smoke screen for a salary dump for Chicago. When you hear "for Bynum and three picks" it sounds like a bundle but there's a good possibility none of these picks are even first rounders.

So the Cavs could have probably extracted Gasol for around the same price, I wonder why they chose Deng. Irving, Waiters and Deng is a nice 1-2-3 but they're gonna have to pay Deng like $10 mil a year to keep him, and he plays the same position as Dan Gilbert's agony and ecstasy LeBron James.

He just turned down $10m a year from the Bulls, that's way they traded him. He wants $14-$15m a year.

As for playing the same position as Lebron, that's no problem, Deng is a free agent.

Luol Deng gave the Bulls everything he had for more than nine seasons, but the appreciation wasn't always reciprocated. A trade sending Deng to the Cavs therefore ends a rocky era that should have been more peaceful.

Sentimentality only gets in the way in the cold-hearted business of basketball, a place where loyalty means paying for past performance in future years and there's simply no room for a curtain call. We all know that luxury tax dollars and amorphous future assets take precedence over a decade of blood, sweat and tears, but it doesn't exactly lessen the blow when it happens.

An early-morning trade sending Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers hammered home the point without apology.

Deng was the Bulls' longest tenured player since being drafted with the No. 7 pick in 2004. It isn't a reach to say he changed the culture in Chicago. In the six years between Michael Jordan's retirement and the 2004 draft, the Bulls averaged 20 wins per season. With rookies Deng and Ben Gordon the next year, the Bulls shot up to 46 wins. They've been a sustainable playoff threat and pseudo-contender ever since, with 2007-08 acting as the only outlier. That was the season the Bulls lucked out to win the lottery and land Derrick Rose.

The Bulls have been Rose's team ever since, but Deng was always riding shotgun. No one embodied the spirit of Tom Thibodeau's Bulls more than Deng. He played through a constant assortment of injuries, accepted the toughest defensive assignment on the wing every night and provided Chicago with a valuable secondary offensive option. Deng defined all of the cliches one might find trite. He was a workhorse, a glue guy, a hard hat and lunch-pail laborer. Basketball was very much a job for Deng. He took the game seriously.

But for someone who did so much good for the Bulls and doubled as the NBA's biggest humanitarian, Deng rarely felt fully appreciated by the organization. The way they treated a player and person of his stature was often an embarrassment. It started with a contentious negotiation process for Deng's first extension, when he fought past lowball offers from the Bulls before eventually getting $71 million over six years. He was the subject of trade rumors all the way through — everyone from Pau Gasol to Kevin Garnett to Kobe Bryant — but it never bothered him. Deng just punched the clock and kept on working.

The relationship between the player and team really started to sour in 2009. The Bulls misdiagnosed what turned out to be a stress fracture in his right leg and publicly challenged him to play through it. That isn't an exaggeration. In the news release announcing the injury was this line: "He will be encouraged to challenge himself physically." A few weeks later, doctors were advising him not to put any weight the leg.

It didn't end there. Deng was issued a spinal tap when doctors suspected meningitis during last season's playoff run, an injection that had severe repercussions on Deng's body and glued him to a hospital bed. Once he was there, the Bulls showed little concern for him. Deng didn't even have a private hospital room, much less visits from team personnel. Tom Thibodeau had the gall to say Deng had "flu-like symptoms, whatever" when asked about Deng's illness. It set the stage for another contentious negotiation process. Deng's impending free agency hung over this season the moment the last one ended.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Deng era ends in Chicago with a thud. The Bulls made one final overture to Deng, a three-year, $30 million contract that would have amounted to a hometown discount. Deng does some important things with his money. He wasn't about to take less to play for an organization that mistreated him on numerous occasions over the years.

Still, it's hard to fault the Bulls for the offer. Even though Deng doesn't turn 29 until April, there's reason to believe his future might not be as bright as his past. The organization plays a role in that, as Deng has led the NBA in minutes per game each of the last two years. Since Thibodeau took over, he's finished no lower than fourth in the category. He's been playing with torn ligaments in his wrist since January of 2012, only he never got the surgery because of his obligations to both the Derrick Rose-less Bulls and Great Britain in the Olympics. Deng also revealed that he played through a fractured thumb last season.

The Bulls will spin it like this had to be the end for Deng in Chicago. Maybe this will end up being a bright business decision.

But from an owner who prides himself on loyalty, refusing to pay Deng market value reeks of hypocrisy. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf said it himself: "Basketball is a game. Baseball is a religion. Baseball is American." While the other team Reinsdorf owns, the Chicago White Sox, are defined by loyalty throughout the major and minor leagues, with former players holding every job imaginable, the same sense of obligation does not extend to his basketball team. It didn't even extend to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Basketball is indeed only a game to Reinsdorf. Is it even American?

There is nevertheless plenty to be excited about in Chicago for the future, assuming Rose can stay healthy. There's a top-10 protected draft pick from the Bobcats that could be theirs in a loaded 2014 draft. They have their own pick, which may be in the lottery now. Nikola Mirotic, arguably one of the best basketball players in the world outside of the NBA, could be over next season, too. Now, they have a protected first-round pick from the Kings, multiple second-rounders from the Blazers and the right to swap with Cleveland in 2015.

But what the Deng trade really signifies is the end to era of Bulls basketball that never got a fair shake. Injuries decimated three straight seasons for a team that truly believed it had enough to win a championship.

Perhaps the Bulls should be commended for recognizing when to cut their losses. The best business decisions rarely feel good in real time. This one certainly doesn't. All the while, it might be best for every party involved.

Often times, it felt like Luol Deng was too good for the Bulls. Finally, the team isn't his problem anymore.

Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned,and come short of the glory of God. kjv
Ephisians 4: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. kjv

I love Lance and don't want to see him go. But I also think that on a different team, Lance might not be the model citizen he's been here. It's kinda what Larry talked about: this team is able to keep him grounded and playing at his best. If you're Chicago and you throw 13mil at Lance, do you get your money's worth?

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Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

Lance needs the Pacers more than the Pacers need Lance. If he gets into the wrong situation things could easily go bad quickly. The Pacers can plug in a piece and re-sign Granger and still be in good shape, if Lance went to a team much like Tyreke Evans did for the Pelicans, I don't know if it would work. I don't know if Lance is inherently great as a 1 or 2 option, when he's 4 or 5 out there, it's much easier to succeed.

"It's just unfortunate that we've been penalized so much this year and nothing has happened to the Pistons, the Palace or the city of Detroit," he said. "It's almost like it's always our fault. The league knows it. They should be ashamed of themselves to let the security be as lax as it is around here."

Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

This was a great deal for the Cavs. It's too bad they royally bombed that Bennett pick because they do have some nice pieces with Kyrie and Waiters and Thompson to a lesser extent. If they can get Deng for $12m a year they will still have almost $20m in cap space to spend. They gave up nothing for a nice iece.

Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

8 teams interested. If contract size is any factor and I think it will be, then Miami is out.
I'd think Portland would have an interest, I wonder who could offer him the biggest deal. I don't care where he lands as long as it's out West.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap...st-Eight-Teams
Andrew Bynum has received interest from at least eight teams, most notably the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers.
Marc Stein reports that the Dallas Mavericks are interested as well.
Bynum was waived on Tuesday by the Chicago Bulls.
Bynum will factor playing time, chance of contention and contract size into

Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

8 teams interested. If contract size is any factor and I think it will be, then Miami is out.
I'd think Portland would have an interest, I wonder who could offer him the biggest deal. I don't care where he lands as long as it's out West.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap...st-Eight-Teams
Andrew Bynum has received interest from at least eight teams, most notably the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers.
Marc Stein reports that the Dallas Mavericks are interested as well.
Bynum was waived on Tuesday by the Chicago Bulls.
Bynum will factor playing time, chance of contention and contract size into

Well ironically, the Sixers could offer him the most money. But clearly they have zero interest. The only other teams that can offer him significant money would be the Nets -- who just got a $5.25M injury exception due to Lopez's injury. Problem is, with their salary situation right now, it would cost the team about $20M just for this year -- and the Heat, who somehow have their full MLE available.

Not saying you can absolutely bet against Mutant Cuban here, but I'd say chances are slim that they are going to use that exception on Bynum.

Re: Bulls trade Deng to Cavs

Well ironically, the Sixers could offer him the most money. But clearly they have zero interest. The only other teams that can offer him significant money would be the Nets -- who just got a $5.25M injury exception due to Lopez's injury. Problem is, with their salary situation right now, it would cost the team about $20M just for this year -- and the Heat, who somehow have their full MLE available.

Not saying you can absolutely bet against Mutant Cuban here, but I'd say chances are slim that they are going to use that exception on Bynum.

It's hard to say with the Nets owner but I forgot about the exception they were just given. When you consider that they just lost their starting center, the history of their owner spending money and the fact that they wouldn't have requested the exception unless they planned on using it, I'd say they have to be the heads on favorite for Bynum. They may offer him a multi year deal.

What if someone from a school of business or management school were to ask, How did you do this? How did you get the Pacers turned around? Is there a general approach you've taken that can be summarized?